Unfortunately, most weight loss approaches designed for fast results are not healthy for you. Furthermore, these "fast" approaches usually involve a very strict method of eating which can only be sustained for a short period of time. Once your motivation to stick to such an austere regiment wanes, you'll go straight back to the eating habits which caused you to gain weight in the first place. Wouldn't you agree?
So what's the solution? The solution to the extremely common pitfall described above is to embrace a weight loss approach which is designed for permanent success, rather than a short-term fix to a problem bound to return. This means eating in a way that 1) you can actually live with, as a lifestyle not a diet, and 2) results in you maintaining the slim body you want.
Additionally, if your health is important to you, you'll also want to ensure the approach you take is healthy for you on all levels, mind and body. (Tip: part of this includes not stressing yourself over counting calories or losing weight too quickly.)
The challenge is, designing a permanent solution to weight loss is usually the last thing on anyone's mind because the main drive they're experiencing is to simply lose weight fast! Who wants to wait?! Unfortunately, this urge most often leads to going on some form of a crash diet which is not healthy for your body or your mind, and is bound to result in gaining back all the weight you'll lose and then some! (This dynamic is the root cause of "yo-yo dieting".)
For these reasons, our NYC Personal Trainers don't recommend focusing on achieving weight loss results in a fast manner. However, since so many of us insist on tasking ourselves with losing a certain amount of weight within a rather short period of time, we decided to present a few practical and effective guidelines for achieving such goals in a healthy, sustainable way.
The following article will explain how to not only lose weight fast, but how to do it in a healthy way that can actually transition into a realistic lifestyle for you. Following such an approach will enable you to maintain the results you worked for rather than having them vanish once the crash diet you're following crashes.
This is the time of year when women scramble to lose weight fast. Nothing motivates quite like the prospect of weekends at the beach or a summer vacation spent in bathing suits and shorts. If you look at the cover of any women's magazine between now and July, you're almost guaranteed to find some sort of "miracle diet" that's guaranteed to help you shed ten or twenty pounds in a matter of weeks. Can you do it? Yes. Are crash diets the way to do it? No.
The Problem with Crash Diets.
Most crash diets are extremely low in calories, extremely limited in food choices, and deliver extremely short-term results. You might hit that pounds-lost goal after several weeks of deprivation only to find that the weight starts piling back on within just a few days of eating normally. The problem isn't that the weight loss was fast, but that it came from the wrong sources (mostly water and lean muscle tissue).
However, this doesn't mean you can't lose weight in time to look great in that bikini. You just need to do it by working with your body, rather than trying to "trick" it into letting go of body fat. The good news is that this can be just as fast as a crash diet, but much more pleasant and much less temporary. Here are five tips to help you lose weight fast, but healthfully.
1. Eat clean.
The biggest enemy of weight loss is processed foods. Not only chips and other packaged snacks, but cereals, lunch meats, frozen dinners (even the "healthy" ones), and canned soups. You don't need to cut any food group from your diet. Fruit is wonderfully healthy. Carbs are necessary for energy. Fat helps you feel satisfied and absorb nutrients.
You can get incredible weight loss results simply by removing processed foods from your diet and eating a clean diet. This means eating things in as natural and untouched a state as possible. You don't need to eat everything raw, but raw is great. Steamed, roasted, and baked foods are also fine.
Focus on fruits and vegetables, seafood and fish, lean meats, whole grains, low-fat (preferably organic) dairy, and nuts and seeds. Eat them as simply as possible and get plenty of variety.
2. Eat more.
Eating one or two large meals a day slows your metabolism, encourages overeating and throws your hormones out of whack, especially cortisol and insulin, which stimulates fat storage.
Eat as soon as possible after waking and then eat constantly. Yes, constantly. At a minimum, you should eat a snack or small meal every two to three hours. It could be a full meal or something as simple as an apple and a piece of cheese, but you should combine a carbohydrate with either a fat or a protein to give you energy but also keep you from feeling hungry.
3. Do not count calories.
That's right, do not count calories. If you're sticking with the foods listed above and not gorging on any one thing, it is nearly impossible to take in too many calories. In fact, after a day or two, you will most likely eat far fewer calories than you normally do.
Also, by removing any processed foods from your diet, you are automatically removing an enormous number of calories from your daily intake.
4. Get plenty of Vitamin C.
You can read our article on vitamin C and weight loss, but for now let us just say that your body uses vitamin C to make L-carnitine, a natural compound that is responsible for transporting stored fat to the liver, where it can be turned back into glycogen and burned as energy. If you want to lose stored fat, you need plenty of L-carnitine and that means you need lots of vitamin C.
The healthiest way to get your C is from minimally processed fruits and vegetables. However, if you find yourself struggling to maintain adequate intake of these ultra important foods, we suggest taking two 500mg chewables three times per day as a fallback option.
5. Drink a ton of water.
When you go on a clean diet filled with fresh fruits and vegetables and without all of the flour, oil, and other unhealthy foods that gum up your digestive tract, your body will be able to cleanse your digestive system of built-up toxins and waste, and that alone will result in weight loss. You'll need plenty of water on board to make that happen, so drink a minimum of 64 fluid ounces per day and add more if you're in a hot climate, under a good deal of stress, or working out strenuously.
By using just these five tips, you can easily lose as much as five pounds per week, without going hungry and without ruining your health or feeling fatigued. After all, what's the point of looking amazing if you feel too awful to enjoy it?
Additionally, if you live in Manhattan or the New York City area, we invite you to explore the benefits of working with one of our Certified Personal Trainers. Each of our Fitness Trainers have in-depth experience in helping women just like you get the body they want.
Training on your own isn't for everyone, especially in the beginning when you first start out. Having an expert Personal Trainer guide you through the process can do wonders for your confidence and dramatically accelerate your results. Many of our clients work with our Personal Trainers for three to six months and then transition in to training on their own.
We prefer to educate and empower our clients about nutrition and fitness training so they can eventually train independently if they want to. However, we are also fully committed to training our clients for as long as they wish, as many individuals prefer to continuously capitalize on the immense advantages of personal training.
Our staff includes some of the most experienced personal trainers in NYC; each one of them committed to helping their clients reach newfound heights of physical fitness and health. Let us show you firsthand what a difference we can make in your life. Schedule your free personal training consultation today; call (212) 920-5598. We look forward to speaking with you!
